Thought processes and conversations started under the tilted cap of Tropicana Field. Someday everyone will know the Rays play in St. Petersburg, Florida, not TAMPA, or the fictitious city of TAMPA BAY.

Daytime Games Seem to Crimp our Style

I am beginning to think some of us have become very spoiled when this team hits the road. We seem to fall apart at the seams, a daytime contests suddenly sending some of us into the dizzy spiral as we pant and pacing the store aisles like mad men/women looking for a miniature AM radio we can hide within our work uniform so we can stay abreast of the game.

How unthoughtful of Major League Baseball to burden us with the anxious moments during the Tampa Bay Rays first road trip of the season which will feature 7-straight daytime contests right up until the Rays hit Canada for the first time on April 17th. Sure it might put some of us in the Rays Republic into a lather because of the discomfort of leaning over while driving hoping someone has the game on their radio, or draining our cellphone battery quickly as we keep MLB At Bat running until the games conclusion. But it is a small price to pay over a 162-game season.

Sure it might seem to the naked eye visually scanning the schedule that it favors the Boston Red Sox in our first journey into Fenway Park in 2012, but the Rays are the guests during the Red Sox’s Opening Day festivities on Friday (2:05 pm), a Nationally televised contest on Saturday (4:05 pm) plus have the pleasure/ displeasure of being in beantown for the Sunday’s Boston Marathon and its annual day contest (1:35 pm) as well as Monday’s Patriot Day (11:35 am) getaway game.

Of course sandwiched between now and the Boston series is a bit of cold and dreary weather as the Rays visit Motown and the Tigers for 3 -straight 1:05pm contests that could have everything from snow flurries to possible temps ranging from the 40’s to mid-50’s by Thursday afternoon. Looking at the forecast, the Rays will miss the potential for rain that will sweep in late Friday and Saturday, so they got that going for them.

But seriously, does 7-days of shifting our priorities, trying to stay abreast of scores or moonshots while doing our daily duties really fluster us this much? I mean for the Rays, it has to be a bit of a great thing as they can still keep to their usual Spring Training routines without having to break from the routine until they hit Canada next Monday night in advance of Tuesday first road night contest. Makes it easier for guys to make plans, do errands, possibly do some sightseeing and dinner arrangements, plus keeps them on a schedule they have been perfecting since mid-February.

So just because we have a bit of adjusting to do to hear, watch or even catch a glimpse of games during this 7-game contests in the Sun movement, remember it is only the first Rays road trip and considering we have 80 games left on the road, this is a small inconvenience I think we all can live with. Think of it as an early precursor to the pains we all will experience as the Rays have a 19 games in 20 days just after the conclusion of the All-Star break which includes a 6-game (July 27-Aug. 1st) West Coast journey to Anaheim and Oakland…with a hodge-podge of afternoon (3:35 pm) and late night (10:05 pm) start times. Kind of makes the day time game bearable…right?

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